Apparatus for making pile fabric



' July 28, 1959 w. A. RICE 2,996,670

APPARATUS FOR MAKING FILE FABRIC 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed March 27, 1958 .llmll.

NTOR. E

W. A. RICE APPARATUS FOR MAKING FILE FABRIC July 28, 1959 2 Sheets-$heet 2 Filed March 27 1958 n VENTOR. BY 4 Ea vgwijlhflfi A TTORNEZIC'ZZL Unit States atent 1 2,896,670 Patented July 28, 1959 ice APPARATUS FOR MAKING P IIJE FABRIC Walter A. Rice, Amsterdam, N.Y., assignor to Mohasco Industries, Inc, Amsterdam, N.Y., a corporation of New York Application March 27, 195s, Serial No. 724,459 7 Claims. Cl. 139-38 This invention relates to the production of pile carpets and resides more particularly in a novel loom for producing such carpets. In fabrics made on the loom, the pile is formed of pile warp yarns having portions bound in a backing fabric and other portions raised above the backing to form the elements of the pile, but the raising of the pile elements does not require the use of pile wires. As a result, the loom is of simpler construction than comparable pile wire looms and can be operated at a higher speed.

At the present time, pile fabrics, in which the pile is made of pile warp yarns, are commonly made on looms, in which the sets of binder warp yarns and the pile yarns are formed into sheds by means, which, in their simplest form, include separate heddles for the pile yarns and for the binder yarns of the respective sets. Such looms are provided with a wire motion functioning to insert a wire of a set in a shed in each weaving cycle, in which the pile yarns are in the upper line, and the inserted wire thus holds the pile yarns in the form of loops raised over the wire. A set of pile wires ordinarily contains about twenty-four to twenty-eight wires, and after. all the wires of the set have been inserted, in respective sheds, the shedding motion acts at the proper time in each cycle to withdraw the wire from the row of loops earliest formed and to insert the wire so withdrawn into another shed. Such a shedding motion is a complicated mechanism, which from time to time gets out of order, so that the loom must be stopped for repairs or adjustments to the motion.

The present invention is, accordingly, directed to the provision of a novel loom for weaving pile fabrics containing a pile formed of warp yarns, which does not require a wire motion or a heddle for the pile'yarns. In the operation of the loom of'the invention, the binder warp yarns of the fabric are in two sets, which form respective lines in a series of sheds with the positions of the yarns of the sets reversed in successive sheds. The pile yarns are controlled by guide fingers and. ordinarily lie in the lower line of each shed. However, after each pick of filling has been inserted in a shed and beaten up, the guide fingers raise loops of the pile yarns to extend above the pick and the loops are then caught and heldin raised position. The holding means function to hold a series of loops of each yarn and, as new loops are added to the series, the oldest loops are released from the holding means by being cut.

For a better understanding of the invention, reference may be made to the accompanying drawings, in which Fig. 1 is a diagrammatic vertical sectional view of the new loom; i

Figs. 2 and 3 are diagrammatic vertical sectional views showing parts of the loom at dilferent stages in the weaving cycles; and

Fig. 4 is a diagrammatic longitudinal sectional View through a fabric produced on the loom.

The loom illustrated in the drawing includes the usual sides connected by girts and is provided with a breastplate 11 and a breastbeam 12. The loomhas means for supporting a beam 13 of the binder warp yarns 14, 15 and the pile warp yarns 16 may be supplied from a beam carried by the loom sides or from a. creel.

The pile yarns employed in the loom shown come from packages in a creel and pass through a stationary reed 17 to a feeding device, which comprises a sand roll 1% mounted for free movement in the loom sides and provided with a ratchet wheel 19 engageable by a pawl 20 mounted on one of the loom sides and operating to prevent backward movement of the roll. The yarns passing over the roll 18 are led beneath a smooth surfaced roll 21 in arms 22', which are pivoted on the shaft of a sand roll 23 mounted for free movement in the loom sides. The roll 23 carries a small ratchet wheel 24 engageable by a pawl 25 mounted on one of the arms 22 and the roll carries a large ratchet wheel 26 engageable by a pawl27 mounted on one of the loom sides. The arms 22 may be rocked about the shaft of roll 23 and, for this purpose, the arms are connected by links 23 to the ends of levers 2h pivotally mounted on the loom sides. The other ends of the levers 29 are provided with rollers 30 engageable with cams 31 on a shaft 32 mounted in the loom sides and driven from .a rotating part of the loom. The cams 31 are so formed and the shaft 32 is driven at such a rate that, once per loom cycle, the arms 22 are raised. When this occurs, the roll 21 moves upward and the pawl 25 moves downward to advance the sand roll 23 by one step. The movement of roll 21 away from the yarns releases the tension thereon and the downward movement of pawl 25 advances the sand roller 23 to feed the yarns toward the breastplate 11.

Beyond the feeding device, the yarns pass under stationary guide rods 33, 34 and through the heddles 35, 35 between the wires thereof. Beyond the guide rod 34, each pile yarn passes through the eye at the end of a guide finger 37. The guide fingers are mounted on a bar 38 carried by arms 39 secured to a shaft 41') mounted in the loom sides and rockable by an arm 41 connected by a link 42 to a strap 43 encircling an eccentric 44 on a shaft 45 driven from a rotating part of the loom.

The binder warp yarns i4, 15 of the two sets are led from beam 13 about respective pairs of guide rods 46, 4-7 and are then drawn through the eyes of respective heddles 3-5, 36. The binder warp yarns lie above the guide rods 33, 34 and pass from the heddles to a reed comprising a plurality of dents 48 mounted on the beam 4d of a lay. The lay includes arms 50 secured to a rock shaft 51 mounted in hearings on the loom sides and driven in the usual way. Each dent :3 has a slot near its upper end through which a binder warp yarn of each set passes to the fell of the goods on the breastplate if.

A plurality of hooks one for each pile yarn guide finger 37, are mounted in a bar 53 attached to a rock shaft 54 mounted in bearings on the loom sides and operable by an arm 55 connected by a link 56 to a strap 57 encircling an eccentric on shaft 45. A plurality of knives one for each hook 52, are mounted on a support 59 attached to a rock shaft 68 mounted in bearings on the loom sides, and the shaft is provided with an arm 61 connected by a link 62 to a strap 63 encircling an eccentric on shaft 45.

in the operation of the loom, the heddles 35, 36 move vertically in opposite directions to produce a shed, in which the yarns 14, for example, are in the upper line and the yarns 15 in the lower line, as shown in Fig. 3. The pile warp yarns 16 are normally held in down position by the guides 33, and may be considered to lie in the lower line of the shed. During the formation of the shed, the shaft 40 lies in a position such that the ends of the pile guide fingers 37 are below the yarns 16 and the 'then inserted in the shed between yarns 14, 15 and, for

this purpose, the loom may be equipped with a needle indicated at 64 in Fig. 3. When a needle is employed, each pick of filling is double but, if preferred, the filling may be inserted by' a shuttle, so that single picks are employed. When the pick has been inserted, it is beaten up by the swinging of the lay toward the rear edge of thc breastplate, as shown in Fig. 1. During the beat-up, the heddles 35, 36 are reversing the position of the yarns 14, 15 and, when the reed has been'fully retracted, a second shed of the yarns has been formed, in which the yarns 14 lie in the lower line and the yarns 15 in the upper line. As soon as the reed is out of the way, the shaft 40 is rocked so that the pile guide fingers 37 rise from their down position shown in Fig. 3, to their up position shown in Fig. 2. As the fingers are thus moving, the

arms 22 are swung so that the roller 21 releases the pile yarn 16 between the rollers 18 and 23 and the pawl 25 engages the ratchet wheel 24 attached to roll 23 and advances the wheel and roll to feed the yarns.

During the upward movement of the pile guide fingers 37 to raise loops of pile yarn above the last inserted pick, the bar 53 with its hooks 52 lies in such position that the ends of the hooks are out of the path of the rising guide fingers 37. When the fingers have reached their up position (Fig. 2), the bar 53 is swung so that eachhook 52 enters a loop of pile yarn raised by a guide finger. As the guide fingers move down again, the loops. of pile yarn raised thereby are caught and held by the hooks and, as successive loops are caught on each hook, the loops move along the hook to the bight thereof. When the hooks have caught the loops raised by an ascent of the guide fingers, the hooks swing back so that they do not project beyond th back edge of the breastplate.

During the insertion of the hooks 52 into the raised loops of pile yarn, the knives associated with respective hooks are in the inoperative position shown in Fig. 2

but, when the hooks move forward over the breastbeam, the shaft 60 is rocked so that each knife severs the first loop of each series on the hook, that is, the loop of the series first placed upon the hook and lying nearest the bight. When the loops have thus been severed by the knives, the knives swing back to inoperative position.

When the pile guide fingers have completed their descent, the second shed of binder warp yarns is in condition for the insertion of the second pick of filling and, after this pick has been inserted and beaten up, loops of the pile yarns are raised behind the pick and caught on the hooks as described. Each time the pile guide fingers rise, the feed means function so that rol1.21 releases lengths of the yarns for the formation of the loops and the roll 24 advances such lengths. As the pile guide fingers descend, the arms 22 swing down and the roll 21 then depresses the pile yarns between rolls 18 and 23 to draw additional lengths of the yarns over the roll 18 from the packages on the creel.

In the fabric produced on the loom, the binder warp yarns 14, 15 lie on opposite sides of each pick of filling 65 and cross between adjacent picks so that the posiusual spike roll 68 and over a guide roll 69 to a take-up roll not shown.

From the foregoing, it will be apparent that the loom of the invention differs from an ordinary pile fabric loom, in the respect that, in the new loom, the pile warp yarns are not acted on by the shedding motion and loops of the pile yarns are raisedwithout the use of pile wires to form pile elements. When pile yarn loops are to be formed, the yarns are raised in loops in an operation independent of the formation of a shed and the raised loops are caught and held in up position and ultimately released by being severed. The loom is simpler than a pile wire loom, in that no wire motion is employed and no heddle with its cam, etc., is required for handling the pile yarns. As a consequence, the loom can be operated at a higher speed than a comparable pile wire loom. Also, since the loom does not make use of pile wires, the loom used may be a converted Axminster loom, from which the tube frames and chains and the transfer mechanism have been removed.

I claim:

1. A loom for making a pile carpet containing pile warp yarns and binder warp yarns in two sets interlaced with picks of filling yarn, which comprises shedding means forming the binder warp yarns into a series of sheds with the yarns of the two sets in respective upper and lower lines of the sheds and the positions of the yarns of the two sets reversed in successive sheds, means for inserting a pick of filling yarn in each shed, lay and reed means for beating up the inserted picks, means for guiding the pile warp yarns to cause them to lie in the lower line of each shed, means acting after the insection of each pick to raise a loop of each pile yarn to extend above the inserted pick, means entering each raised loop of pile yarn and supporting the loop in raised position, the supporting means actingto support a series of loops of each pile yarn, and means for severing the raised loops to release them from'the supporting means, the severing means acting to sever a loop of each yarn each time another loop of the yarn is raised and added to the supported series.

2. The loom of claim 1, which includes means for feeding the pile yarns from supplies thereof to the guiding means.

3. The loom of claim 1, in which the loop-raising means act on the pile yarns between the guiding means and the fell of the goods.

4. The loom of claim 3, which includes pile yarn feed rolls and means for operating the rolls intermittently to feed a length of each pile yarn each time the loop-raising means raises loops of the pile yarns.

5; The loom of claim 1, in which the loop-raising means include a guide finger for each pile yarn, a support for the fingers, and means for raising and lowering the support to raise loops of the pile yarns.

6. The loom of claim 1, in which the supporting means include a plurality of hooks, one for each pile yarn, and means for inserting the hooks into the raised loops.

7. The loom of claim 6, in which each hook acts to support a series of loops of pile yarn and the severing means include knives cooperating with-respective hooks to sever a loop at one end of each series each time a loop is added at the other end of the series.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 

